Jack Allison wrote:

This exact point was brought up by the Angel Flight West folks. They
said that one of the biggest benefits of the burn camp is that the kids
get a chance to feel normal. I'd never really thought of that, despite
the perfect sense it makes.

Quite some years ago there was a PBS story on a researcher who is
working on biomuscular control to help people who are paralized below
the waist actually walk (then even made a TV movie about his research).
One thing I still remember about the documentary was at the end they
interviewed a bunch of the research subjects. Usual questions,
including "Well, what's the biggest difference it has made in your
life?"

What I still remember was that, almost to a person, every one of them
said not the increased mobility, or the increased accessibility to
buildings... No, the biggest thing that virtually every one of them
listed as the number one change it had made to their lives: "It lets me
talk to people at their level, look them in the eye."

In other words, it makes them "not different."

Yes, most differences are to be cherished. But we all remember our
school days... we are social animals. As the Amish learned long ago,
"shunning" is one of the worst punishments we can inflict.